1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to selectively generating visual display information for a computer system, and, more particularly, to generating, from first information for a first display element image, second information for a second display element image that is a selected portion of the first display element image.
2. Related Art
In public speaking, it is common for a presenter to have visual material on his or her computer, which is very often a notebook computer, and to display the material on both the speaker""s computer monitor and a larger, audience monitor. Computers, and particularly notebook computers, have improved in recent years with regard to computational power and capability to quickly render high resolution images. There have also been improvements in size and resolution of monitors included in notebook computers. With these improvements, computers are potentially even more useful for presentations. However, there have not been correspondingly significant improvements in the way that information from a speaker""s computer is displayed on an audience monitor. Therefore a need exists for such improvements.
The foregoing need is addressed in the present invention. In one aspect of the invention according to the context described above, information may be selectively displayed on a speaker""s monitor in addition to that which is displayed on an audience monitor. Information that is hidden on the speaker""s monitor may also be selectively displayed on the audience monitor. In another aspect, one selected part of information for the speaker""s monitor may be selectively sent to and properly sized for one audience monitor, another part sent to and properly sized for another audience monitor, and so on.
Stated more generally, in one aspect of the invention a converter is operable to receive first visual information from a computer system. The first visual information includes information for generating an image for a first display element. The converter is also operable to receive first selection data from the computer system selectively identifying at least a first portion of the image, and to generate second visual information for a second display element image. The second image corresponds to the selected first portion of the first image. The size of the second image relative to the second display element is controllable by a user and may be selected to be different than the size of the selected portion of the first image relative to the entire first image or relative to the first display element. For example, the second image may be of a size corresponding to the size of substantially the entire second display element.
In another aspect, the converter is operable to receive second selection data from the computer system defining a second portion of the first image, and to generate third graphical information for a third display element image. The third image corresponds to the second portion of the first image.
In one aspect, the first graphical information is provided by a video signal output by a video graphics adapter for the computer system.
In another aspect, a program runs on the computer system for receiving user inputs, including an input selecting a first portion of the first image.
In another aspect, the input selecting the first portion of the first image includes identification of a window of or coordinates within the first image.
Other aspects, as well as advantages and objects of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the accompanying drawings.